Rams have often kept Flyers grounded

The URI basketball team gets to play an opponent Wednesday night that the Rams have been happy to see in recent seasons.With schools coming and going in the conference, the 13-team format this season...

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By
PAUL KENYON
Posted Feb. 11, 2014 @ 8:42 pm

The URI basketball team gets to play an opponent Wednesday night that the Rams have been happy to see in recent seasons.

With schools coming and going in the conference, the 13-team format this season brought about some changes. To get to 16 A-10 games, each team plays once against every team in the league, and twice against four selected teams.

For Rhode Island, that means two games against Massachusetts, Fordham, Saint Joseph’s and Dayton.

The Rams-Flyers series has been the best in the league for Rhode Island over the past five years. While the teams almost always play close games, URI finds a way to win. It has beaten Dayton seven times in a row, including at the Ryan Center last month, when URI turned in its best offensive performance of the season in an 88-76 triumph. No one has to remind the Flyers of the series history.

“I think it’s on everybody’s mind,” said Flyers coach Archie Miller. “You have to address it. When a team has your number, it’s time to step up to the box.”

The URI domination has included three wins at UD Arena, where the teams will meet Wednesday night at 7. The Flyers (16-8, 4-5) lead the league in attendance and have one of the best home-court advantages in the conference, which makes URI’s run of success all the more impressive.

“Since I’ve been here, we haven’t played very well against them. I thought they have sort of a swagger when they play against us,” Miller said.

“Like all programs, you kind of know who you are and what you do against certain teams. I think they’ve hit us in the mouth pretty good. Both times we’ve been up to Rhode Island [since Miller became coach], they were the better team.

“We’ll see on Wednesday. I love the way they compete, the way they fight,” Miller added. “They’re playing at a high level, especially their backcourt. We’re expecting an unbelievable game. … Hopefully we can get that changed.”

Rhody coach Dan Hurley, obviously, would love to see the pattern against Dayton continue. The goal is to do the same thing on a regular basis. While his team has had great success closing out games against Dayton, it has had problems doing that at other times. He is focusing on improvement in that area.

“We’re a young team doing it together for the first time,” he said. “We’ve got one senior. We’ve got some really good young players that have an opportunity to get better and grow together. … We’ve put ourselves in position late to win games, but young teams in the last three or four minutes of tight games, especially conference games, that’s a tough recipe.

“It’s hard late in game. We really haven’t been able to establish where we want the ball to go,” Hurley said. “We haven’t had a lot of success in end of game situations where you know where you’re going to send it. Offensively, when you are developing you kind of get into some of those ‘oh crap’ moments out there where we don’t have a ton of veteran leadership that can calm and settle everybody down.”

Hurley continues to speak positively about his players. He said that finding the winning formula at the end of games is complicated because his best players often are tired by that point.

In last Saturday’s loss to UMass, when the Rams lost a seven-point lead in the final 7:30, the two guards who carried the team, E.C. Matthews and Xavier Munford, both were on their way to playing 39 minutes.

“The guys were a little bit gassed at that point,” he said. “It’s something you go through. GW went through it last year. We’re going through it this year, losing some excruciating games. … When you break through and become a good program, and a leading program, those things tend to start to turn in your favor.”

Miller speaks about how Dayton has gone through much the same process within this season. When it last met URI, it was going through a slump.

“We were playing not to lose, which is different than playing to win,” he said. “Since then the light switch kind of stayed on.” The loss to URI last month turned out to be a pivotal point, the Dayton coach feels.

“I’ve watched the film when we played them the first time a couple of times. It’s almost not worth watching. I would say that’s the lowest point of our team’s season,” he said.

“Our effort level and our chemistry on both ends of the floor was non-existent. It served as a spur. Our players knew they had to get better.”

That is what has happened. His team has beaten George Washington and then won at George Mason and at St. Bonaventure in its last two starts. At 16-8, the Flyers are very much in the fight for an NCAA Tournament berth.

But they have to reverse the trend against Rhode Island to stay there.